Field Report: report on the trip to Myanmar

Aya Ohnishi

There are actually a lot of people who are not even sure where Myanmar is located. In addition, the only information they have about Myanmar is "it used to be called Burma," "it was where a movie the Harp of Burma took place," and "the story about Aung San Suu Kyi." To tell the truth, I was one of them. I have traveled to several countries in Southeast Asia as a backpacker when I was a student. But unlike those countries that I have visited, Myanmar had no appeal to me. Well, let me explain by way of excuse that it was impossible to come by any attractive information about Myanmar at that time. However, now that things have come to this pass, my interest toward the countries of Southeast Asia, which we have already reached to every inch and seen everything to excess, was about to decline.

A massive pagoda in Yangon called ShwedagonPagoda. It is a part of daily life to visit a temple

And on the other hand, my desire to experience the unknown was certainly beginning to grow at the bottom of my heart. It was just then that I was invited to travel together to Myanmar. When I think of it now, I did not care a bit about the gist or purpose of the trip at that time. It was just that I could not find any reason to refuse the invitation.

It was six years ago when I had almost no interest in Asia and never even had Thai food, I happened to have a chance to visit Thailand on strange occasions. With that trip as a start, I ended up falling in love with Southeast Asia; that was how it came about. So, this trip to Myanmar also might possibly open the door for me into the unknown world. Thinking so, I had my heart pounding with expectation.

People living with Buddhism

A massive pagoda in Yangon, ShwedagonPagoda, is always crowded with people

As I set my foot in the lobby at the Yangon International Airport after going through the entry formalities, there was a scene that I have never seen before jumping into my eyes. There were men wearing sober-colored national costume such as yellowish green or ocher. There also were dark-skinned women with their cheeks covered with white powder. It was an unfamiliar sight I have not come across in any other countries of Southeast Asia. Myanmar has a culture of its own; I was amazed even at such a natural fact. Or rather, I was probably shocked at myself for being so ignorant.

When I visited the massive pagoda in Yangon, ShwedagonPagoda, on the following day, I saw a sight symbolic of Myanmar. Men and women of all ages dressed in their national costume, longyi, were taking a round within the precincts, and offering a prayer at every altar and hall, touching their foreheads to the ground. On the other hand, at the foot of the halls, there also were families sitting down doing nothing and men taking a nap. A temple in Myanmar appeared to be serving as a place of recreation and relaxation just like a park where people come together. It was in the evening that I visited a temple in an ancient capital, Bagan, but even at that time, there was a calm but good turnout in the precincts with people enjoying the cool evening breeze or saying a prayer quietly. For the people in Myanmar, Buddhism certainly is an essential part of their lives.

At the corner of Bogyoke Aung San Market. The market itself occupies a spacious site within a building

In Myanmar, to enter a temple and pray before the altar, no outdoor shoes are allowed in the precincts. It is not only the shoes that you have to take off. Even socks as well as stockings are forbidden. I do not know for certain whether it is with an aim to get closer to the Buddha by becoming as natural as possible or simply to show reverence to the Buddha. Yet, from such exhaustive rule, I can imagine the profound religious piety of the people in Myanmar.

The members of the Myanmar-Japan Friendship Association who assisted us during the trip belonged to a considerably wealthy group in Myanmar. During our stay, we visited a great number of temples with them. Yet, while our object was nothing but sightseeing, their purpose was, of course, to pray before the altar. When visiting a temple, they always give flowers and make a monetary offering. They remain still in front of the Buddha with their foreheads on the ground for a long time making us wonder what they are praying so eagerly for. There were some among them who owned summerhouses in the suburbs, and they also had the fields with that. As I inquired if that is for self-support, they replied that they would contribute their crops to a monastery. In such a materially poor country as Myanmar, even those who are capable of making a fortunate living have a devout faith in Buddhism without exception, and that is completely immeasurable for Japanese, the people with no religious belief.

Myanmar, a continental country

Women having a meal in the temple

Like other Asian countries, Myanmar also is a multiracial nation. At the National Museum in Yangon, there was an exhibition room displaying all the racial groups within the country. It was a corner peculiar to Myanmar where more than 100 different groups of people including minority races live, and there were a large number of male-female pairs of mannequins dressed in a variety of national costumes being displayed. While many of the costumes looked as similar as it was difficult for a foreigner to tell how each one is different from all the others, the dresses of the people living in the northern area where it borders on China obviously looked Chinese with even the faces of the mannequins somehow appeared Oriental as well.

In the town of Yangon

Since Myanmar is also bordered on the west by India and Bangladesh and on the east by China, Laos, and Thailand, it should also be described as a continental country that has been influenced directly by those neighboring countries. Yet, without bothering to visit a museum, I could really recognize the consequences of such circumstances only by traveling in Myanmar. By having a try at eating Myanmarese food, I noticed that a deep-fried dish similar to Chinese and a dish with a variety of spices, though not as strong as that of Thai and Indian, were quite common. When I rode on a carriage in the suburbs of Mandalay, a town located in the middle of Myanmar, I realized that all the drivers had brown skin with sharply-chiseled features. Being curious, I asked and found that they were all Bangladeshis. Moreover, at the largest market in Yangon called Bogyoke Aung San Market, I noticed that it was not rare at all to find shops managed by Indian or Chinese. According to a Myanmarese who was born in the family running a jeweler's shop, though bureaucratic positions have been occupied by Myanmarese, the majority of people involved in business were Chinese and Indian. When I traveled to Thailand, by looking at my Thai friends making a race-related bitter joke one after another, I fully realized that Thailand was a multiracial nation. Just like that, what I just noticed in Myanmar also came as a refreshing surprise. The profundity and richness of Myanmar for being a continental country also turn out to bring about an awkward problem on the contrary. However, because that is something we can never experience in Japan, I somehow find it greatly fascinating, or almost enviable.

Myanmar and Japan

A monastery in Mandalay. As many as 2,000 monks are practicing asceticism here

Since we stayed in Myanmar for such a short period of a week, only with this trip once, we probably could learn no more than a tiny fraction of the country. There were people dressed in national costumes, wearing sandals, having their faces covered with Thanakha powders, and carrying Shan bags made of cloth with embroidery or decoration on their shoulders. Even in the capital Yangon, high buildings can be seen only in a part of the city, and by going 10 minutes toward the suburbs, you will find women walking on an unpaved road carrying stuff on their heads. By visiting a local town, you will see extensive scenery of the rural districts with lots of stilt houses made of woven fronds standing side by side. As far as I feel from such landscape, Myanmar gives the impression of a Buddhist country rich in green where tradition still remains.

As compared with Japan that has been able to win economic prosperity of today by breaking away from its tradition, how the people in Myanmar still live with their tradition is extremely enviable to me. However, it surely is undergoing a change. While over 90 percent of all the people are dressed in longyi, there also are young fellows swaggering about a town wearing jeans and tight T-shirts. English education is introduced already into elementary schools, and the disparity in wealth is expanding. Looking at such a situation, I was convinced that, like other Southeast Asian countries, Myanmar certainly would be making headway toward an economical development, though at a slow pace, and transforming itself.

Walking in a temple in bare feet

When I visited a school, which had all the grades from kindergarten to high school, located within the city of Yangon, I happened to have a junior high school boy ask me about Japan. I explained that Japan is full of high buildings contrasting Yangon that is rich in green, and that the majority of people in Japan are working for companies unlike how it is in an agricultural country, Myanmar. Listening to that, he seemed to be imagining the unknown country in his mind with a longing kind of feeling. Both Myanmar and Japan lack information about each other's country. With this trip, I keenly felt the need for more people of both nations to learn mutually about each other's culture. And also for that, I eagerly hope that the exchange program between the students of Myanmar and Japan, which was the chief objective of the trip, will be materialized as soon as possible.